1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an animal trap for trapping animals such as rats or squirrels which can be reused or disposed of without requiring handling of the animal trapped therein, and which can be easily assembled and taken apart.
2. Discussion of the Background
Undesired animals such as rats or squirrels can become pests that spread diseases and harm farming, ranching and adversely affect the human life. Poisons are often used to kill these animals. Poisoned animals do not die right after consumption of the poison, but rather travel to unknown places and then die. Therefore, because it is difficult to locate and dispose of the dead poisoned animals, the dead animals start decomposing and emit odor.
For the reasons stated above, use of animal traps is advantageous because it does not require use of poison to kill the animals and it is easy to locate the trapped animals.
Heretofore, although most animal traps have generally served their intended purpose, they have been subject to one or more of the following disadvantages:
1. They have been complicated in construction and thus difficult and expensive to manufacture;
2. They have been unreliable in operation;
3. They have been difficult to handle because of their weight or construction;
4. They have been difficult to set because of their construction and, in some cases, have been dangerous to the user in setting them because of a sensitive setting mechanism which can release the trap while being handled by the user;
5. They have been so constructed as to require the handling of a dead animal caught therein if the trap is to be reused; and/or
6. They often require the user to kill the trapped animal if the trapped animal is still alive, which is not desirable for the user.
The animal trap of the present invention is not subject to any of the above-mentioned disadvantages and possesses many advantages not found in the traps in use at present or in the past.